Welcome to the December 2007 Cloudy Nights Imaging/Sketching Contest poll!

Each month the best images selected from the individual Cloudy Nights Imaging and Sketching forums will be presented for the userbase to vote on. The monthly winner receives the coveted Cloudy Nights t-shirt! At the conclusion of the poll, the entry with the highest total will be the winner of the contest..

Please choose your favorite out of all the images. This poll will remain open through January 15th at midnight EST.

As you can see: M1. Photographed with a 12"/f5.3 Newtonian. ItÂ´s a composite of 2 shots, 35 and 45 minutes on Kodak Royal 200. First, both negatives were scanned and combined in PS. Second, a print was made(from the 45 minute shot), scanned too, and finally combined with the negative scans.

During lunch break today I read an article in a different telescope forum in which the author really trashed SCTs. So it's really nice to see two real nice pieces of work done using this type of telescope. Especially getting my attention was the photo of the Crab Nebula done with a C8. WAYTOGO!

Having said this, I too went for the Witch Head pic. The way it seems to hang in the starry field really was appealing.

Yeah the Witch head grabs the attention alright, but a lot of times the difference in some of these photos comes right down to the equipment being used. I mean if you let the beginning Imaging Finalist - Jeff use the Takahashi FSQ-106ED, instead of an 8" SCT with an f 6.3 focal reducer the shots might have been a lot harder to call. Very good job for a newbie to the field, especially allowing for the equipment used! Jeff you've won my vote!

The Mars sketching is my favourite. There are tons of excellent photographs of Deep Sky and of planetary objects using lots of technical equipment. But a telescope, a pencil and a sheet of paper only ... That is really wonderful!

There is virtue to all of these entries. After all that is why they are here. But the Witches Head has my vote! It has great clarity and extension. The subtleties of the coloration are as good as I have seen. This is also not done all that much because it is so hard to get. Nice work on it!

I voted for the drawing of Mars. It requires a great deal of observing skill which goes unnoticed unless someone has actually sat and observed for concentrated moments. I was impressed with the drawing. For his mind had to compile the layers of views picked up by the eyes, carefully note them and make trhe composite we see.

Witch Head for me. I went through them all and didn't read anything at first. I just wanted to look at them all first and then recall in my memory which one stood out the best and why. The rest of them look like any other picture you would see on any site that has astronomy pictures. The Witch Head Nebula stood out in my memory and I was intrigued by seeing it.

I am a novice, so I cannot comment on the equipment used or what "has been done before", but I was just basing my vote on the most memorable.